Having beaten Dark Souls 1 and 2 and am now working on 3, I've been noticing something strange: I find these frustrating, incredibly difficult games to be very relaxing. When I'm tired and come home from work, I've been going straight for Dark Souls. You'd think it'd be the other way around, like I should turn on Mario or something else easygoing. Does anybody else feel the same way?

Really hard games require your total focus, and that IS relaxing, as it’s a break from real life everyday grind and mental stress. Instead of doing mental multitasking, your brain is focused on one thing at a time. I believe that is indeed relaxing.

Side note to this... which is your favorite in the series? I haven't played any of them, but do own the first Dark Souls (and might have Demon's Souls lying around too, but don't remember...). Just never got around to playing it. But if someone only played one, which would you say is best?

I think they each have their strengths and weaknesses. The first is my favorite, but there are a couple places (namely Lost Izalith) that the developers admit were unfinished. They still work, but they're kinda clunky. They're mostly late in the game though so you'll get to see some amazing stuff before you get to anything bad.

The second game is a lot more linear and feels like it's lacking imagination when it comes to bosses (almost all of them is some variant of "a great big guy in armor"). The first game was an intertwining maze, kind of like a 3D Symphony of the Night, but 2 has a bunch of fairly straight paths. Each path leads to several different places, but they hardly ever come together, and they always warp you back to Majula at the end. Still a really solid game, though.

Dark Souls 2: Scholars of the First Sin is basically the second game, but with all the DLC added in. They also changed a lot in the existing game, like putting different enemies in new locations, and the results are mixed. Dragon's Aerie was a pain in the --- in the original game because you were getting swarmed by enemies, so cutting them back in SotFS helped immensely. But places like Heide's Tower of Flame and Black Gulch got the opposite treatment, and are now so frustrating they aren't even fun. Stick to the original DS2.

I haven't beaten 3 yet, but I'm enjoying it. I don't know if the levels are back to being a single big maze yet, but the fact that I can find new areas by going on the beaten track definitely makes me feel good. The bosses are a ton better than in 2 as well. Overall, right now I'd say it's probably my second favorite after the first game. Might even be my FIRST favorite after I beat it.

Bloodborne is just like Dark Souls, and is also NOT like Dark Souls. It's the same basic gameplay, but you'd be surprised how much taking away your shields affects the game. Without a shield to hide behind, you're forced to play more offensively, with nothing but your dodge rolls to protect you. The Victorian London/Lovecraftian setting is cool as hell, and the monsters are more visually interesting than Dark Souls 1 and 2 (though 3 seems to take a lot of inspiration from BB). The downside is that the game is both dark and cluttered. There are a couple areas that I had to look up walkthroughs just to figure out where the hell I was supposed to go. Maybe this is just me, but the amount of scenery is so dense that it overwhelms me and I try to shut out everything except the most obvious path, and that leads to me missing a lot. Still a fun game, though, and highly recommended!

I would recommend Dark Souls 1 to start. You can tank in heavy armor and a shield and make most of the combat much easier as a way to ease yourself into the system.

Just remember to keep talking to every NPC until you exhaust all dialog, you need their information for guidance on where to go. Dark Souls 1 is somewhat "open world" in that many zones are connected so you can choose different paths; you can walk straight into a hard area from the beginning of the game and get destroyed.

Difficult question. I'm tempted to say Dark Souls 1 since it's, again, my favorite out of all of them. The downside to that is that when/if you go back to Demon's Souls, it's... well, it's not bad, really, but it feels like a rough draft for Dark Souls. Which is a shame, because it's actually a really good game in it's own right. So it's up to you: if you want to experience the rise in quality naturally, start with Demon's Souls. If you want to skip straight to the best the series has to offer, go for Dark Souls 1.

Gentlegamer wrote:I would recommend Dark Souls 1 to start. You can tank in heavy armor and a shield and make most of the combat much easier as a way to ease yourself into the system.

Just remember to keep talking to every NPC until you exhaust all dialog, you need their information for guidance on where to go. Dark Souls 1 is somewhat "open world" in that many zones are connected so you can choose different paths; you can walk straight into a hard area from the beginning of the game and get destroyed.

I recommend the Pyromancer class. Decent melee stats, and a long range fire spell go a long way in making the beginning more bearable. In fact, I would personally recommend not tanking out. Being able to dodge (which is affected by your weight) is way more valuable than having a crap ton of armor. And you're not kidding about being able to wander into high level areas. The first time I played, I accidentally stumbled into the New Londo Ruins, and I spent a week just trying to figure out how to get past those freaking ghosts.